Just before this morning’s DNC AAPI caucus, both the main one and its small business follow-up, the first of which which we live-blogged earlier, Hillary’s campaign released this excellent plan which does the research and policy work that no non-professional wants to do.
Before I summarize that material, however, I discuss why the small business panel is important, why it’s not just some ignoreable meeting for party insiders. So much anger and Drumpfing is thanks to anger at everything: at the so-called rigged economy (possibly the only thing the 3 remaining candidates all said verbatim), the everything is wrong (see Christie’s speech for a great example of how to blame everything on Hillary ignoring how many problems came from the GOP President Bush 43, but proportionate blame isn’t a Drumpf sales tactic and his voters don’t want it either). Credible good governance requires the traditional good things: good research, all voices heard, good political operation to figure out the sentiment of the people and what votes are realistic and then a well-administered vote in Congress to make the legislation. Of course, this is just at the federal level and I’d say good laws/policies must be made at all levels of government, but let’s focus on the federal just for this post.
Now, for the meat: AAPI small businesses. AAPI political force went from some remote mere idea to an actually organized, networked, and motivated force active in all levels of politics and actively shaping the nation’s laws and direction in all ways (political but also its many arms like boardrooms, councils, think tanks, etc.). Voices include our endorsed candidates and CAPAC members. That said, use that force to help our community’s small businesses because
- AAPI biz’s grew by 24% 2007 to 2012. Use our political force to not just level the playing field for AAPI small business owners by cutting red tape, accessing capital, relieving taxes, and reducing financing discrimination but also letting AAPIs do all the entrepreneurship they want to. Each pain point is itself a really big goal with tons of organizing and organizations required, but, hey, that’s life.
- AAPI women earn 86% of white males all things equal, even so for some AAPI demographics (they’re humans not demogrpahics, but I’ve not a more humane term). As the convention theme today of breaking barriers goes, use our political force to break barriers to AAPI female pay equity. #talkpay is a good start.
- Half of AAPIs graduate from college with debt, over $20,000 for the usual 4-year graduate. Use our political force to enable properly discriminated refinancing (a vastly complex notion, requires some finance details we won’t graze here) and promote the idea/policy of income-based repayment which is possibly too novel for the greedy finance industry which changes very slowly despite that hurting its profitability.
- Asians are 11% of the 11M undocumented immigrants in this country and 40% of the USCIS backlog. Use our political force for Comprehensive Immigration Reform which almost passed years ago with bipartisan agreement literally just before Sandy Hook took over.
Thanks to the leadership and commitment from a wide tapestry of voices ranging from Sikh Americans to Pacific Islanders – the 2016 campaign is underscoring how Asian Americans are working together to not only seek common ground, but higher ground. Over the past few decades, we’ve worked together to increase the number of voters, candidates, and organizers shaping the direction of our country – but not until now have we seen an inclusive and ambitious platform that will shape not just the identity of the AAPI footprint in national politics, but one that will ensure that we stand up for the rights and opportunities of all of those around. That only happens if we stand up together and stand stronger together.
DNC AAPI Chair Bel Leong-Hong (and a AAAFund Board Member)
